What's the AMP amount needed to run everything off 110 house current?

[chieftain31]

Sent: 6/16/2005 

We just returned from a trip where we were connected to 110 volt house current.  Our shore line was connected via extension cord with a 220/110 adapter to a recepticle on a line with a 20 amp breaker. Nothing else was on the line.  My extension cord is the same size as the shoreline power cord from the coach. I had trouble running my Coleman 11,000 btu roof air. Kept tripping the breaker. Fridge was on gas and all other power use was minimal or off totally. The system ran fine off the generator. What is the correct power connection (if there is one) to run off of 110 house current?  This was the first time I tried it. 

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Sent: 6/17/2005 1:22 AM

Its hard to answer this because our roof air is new, as is almost every system on the Ark...but here goes.

20 amps should be enough to power your rig, even with EVERY system running.  If the circuit you were on was 20 amps and kept tripping, by guess is that their breaker was on its way out. 

I only ran into one shore power problem at a friends house.  His extension cord running to the quansette hut where we were painting the Ark was rated for 30 amps, but the cheap rubber block he used to split the one cord into three obviously wasn't.  When he fired up his compressor, the rubber block melted to my adapter and tripped his circuit.  The whole time we were there the extention cord stayed cool, but when the compressor kicked on, it superheated and melted at my adapter.

Needless to say, we bought a couple of new ones, so we'd have a spare.  We spent the last 2 days there on generator power.

Kev

[Cooneytoones]

Sent: 6/18/2005

Chieftain31...
I agree with Kev, that 20 amp breaker should have held the load...and breaker is probably on the way out...however.....if there was something else from the house on that breaker a 20 amp might be a little light.... I've had that problem before at different places and found a 30 amp circut works better.....
Timmy

[denisondc]

Sent: 6/18/2005

You could measure the voltage that the roof A.C. is seeing. Do this inside the housing below the A.C. unit. Even if the voltage is 115volts at the outlet where you plug in, if there is a good bit of voltage lost in your extension cord/shore power cable/ RV wiring, a low voltage at the a.c. unit will make it draw slightly more current (and run hotter). Anything below 109 volts would be suspicious to me.
And the current the roof a.c. draws will be the same all along the wire, back to the 20 amp breaker. The 20 amp breaker is probably rated for a given load over a period of time - but as they age, that load and that period before it opens will get smaller and shorter. Some circuit breakers can be made to trip by just blowing hot air on them with a blow dryer for a while.
Also, if that 20 amp circuit breaker has a GFCI function in it, that could be causing the problem too.

[chieftain31]

Sent: 6/19/2005

Thanks to all you members who replied.  Sounds like the problem was probably at the panel box with the breaker. We've only had our coach for a year, and still learning. The message boards are a great resource.